Rob and I have bought a small plot in Mid Wales near where we live and the plan is to build a 4-bed energy efficient house. It is going to drive us insane! In the meantime, as a university researcher and trainee archivist I'm going to explore some of the records out there on and effecting self-builds. Wish us luck…

Friday, 19 October 2012

We've got a sort-of-roof! Trusses anyway, which in their own way, cap off the house and I no longer feel it is growing out of all proportion...

This is our bedroom and the window spaces look great. Just heard today that our triple-glazed Optiwin windows left the factory in Austria this morning - on two pallets, one of which is 4metres long and totally impossible to unpack at this end so there has been a hurried call to get them returned and put on 3 or 4 pallets, no idea where they are now! I just hope that driver wasn't too annoyed...and our builder Colin's otherwise very organised schedule is not shot to pieces.

But meanwhile, bathroom window...

View from the neighbouring plot which has just been bought - their detailed planning runs out in August so there'll be building down this lane for a long time yet!

Colin checking the roof trusses...

See, it looks sort of capped now and not looming much over next door's bungalow...

View from the back alongside next door's bungalow again...

If the window chaos gets sorted out soon we should be weather tight in a week. It'll rain each day till then of course but what can you do?

Friday, 12 October 2012

Oh lord, it is definitely one of the stages where it all feels very BIG...

We've been told by lots of people that you go through stages of the house seeming too small, tight and enclosed...and others where it feels enormous and looming...Rob has sent me these and I've not seen the first floor yet (the top floor - no more to come - the neighbours will be glad to hear!) Might not be a bad thing just yet.

I'm sure with weatherboarding and a slate roof and a bit of Welsh weather it'll stand out a lot less!

It is great how quickly this bit happens after the endless waits for paperwork, drawings, and rain rain rain...

But there are some ominous signs of airtightness problems. It seems that we have a lot of people working on the house but those that know what they are doing in terms of specialist windows and airtightness and MVHR aren't the ones organising the day to day work...So we have been told, just as the roofing is due, that the designs and now the frame aren't suitable for the airtightness membrane, but if they don't tell us how are we or the builder to know?

It is too late to change the design but fingers crossed a solution is found that doesn't lose us too much of the passiv design that is costing so much!

Not only is this a real photo of some sun, it is also a sign that we have a ground floor ceiling and somewhere to put the first floor...

In a funny way it is a dislocating experience to see these spaces being enclosed (stupid I know!) after getting used to the open space for so long. But also, I have this feeling that these sights are one-time-only specials! Pretty soon (relatively - in the hoped for lifespan of this house) this will be concealed from human sight and unless we're really unlucky, won't be exposed again.

Rob in the hallway/stairs area just inside the front door:

It seems that the downstairs bathroom - a little room with shower squeezed in for those who can't make it upstairs - has had the window moved to the left and a bit lower than we had in the drawings. This, we've now been told is because of the window in the spare bedroom on the other side of the left hand wall, and perhaps because of the supporting bit of wood above the window? It's a shame because the shower is in the left hand corner and the window wood...and we'll need to put some frosted patterning on at least the lower half now but I guess it isn't a disaster judging from Rob's response!

Some scaffolding surrounding the house - it makes the house look even bigger unfortunately but it does mean we can get up there and see our bedroom and bathroom view for the first time...

Wednesday, 3 October 2012

It is still pouring with rain and may well do all week - it is hard not to lament the weeks without rain we had in August now but here we are, and the builders seem to be doing their best to put a brave face on it.

The rain may damage the OSB and destroy the hardboard protecting our floor but it hasn't diminished the excitement of seeing the plot become a 'house' at last! We took Meg over to have a look and she bounded in the front door like she was born to the place...

It looks massive here from the road/hedge with the scaffolding ready to put in the first floor...just the living room and kitchen wall not yet in as this will need some steel to support the windows:

(Rhododendrons in bottom left doing well!) The below is the downstairs bedroom with the office to the right, lounge/kitchen in the middle and front door and dog friendly hallway (!) far left.

View from the office...it does feel strange framing off the view we've gotten so used to just standing on piles of earth but one day that'll be a distant memory I suppose. I know the window frames will make the view smaller still but thankfully they seem fairly massive!

House from the back and lots more OSB out there ready to finish the ground floor:

View for Rob while at work...

Overlooking lounge/kitchen:

Front door is the one on the right (below) - there will be a little garage on the left and that left hand door way will lead from the garage into the laundry/corridor space where the plant will be. There'll also be a big wooden overhang from the garage covering the walk to the front door where a handy bench will be for taking off wellies!

We were giddy with all this great frame work which was built in our builder's workshop near Cemmaes but then, showing round our Passif expert on Sunday - in pouring rain - he realised that the air tightness membrane had been cut for the internal wall joins which would allow cold bridging all over the house! We might not have felt the difference although our wallets would have when it came to the bills and as Nick said, its much better to get the basics right rather than find problems when it is built and plastered over.

A scary moment as so much great work had already been done but when we turned up on site Monday morning the builders thankfully agreed to remove the easier walls and leave a gap and with the tough ones they got in and cut out a section of wood (below) so that Mike, the airtightness specialist can come back and tape it all up. So nice to be working with people who don't freak out when something like this comes up...

Crisis sort of averted and the view of Cae Bach from top field (you can just see the estuary in the top right...)